THE HUTS WERE SMALL, with little distance between each one and its neighboring abode. On top of that, the bat demons were a shameless bunch; soundproofing was the furthest thing from their minds while building these huts. Some probably felt it was more thrilling this way.
But Gu Mang and Mo Xi were mortified.
The two bat demons were in quite a hurry and wasted no time getting down to business. They had to be pressed up right against the wall; Gu Mang and Mo Xi could hear faint wet squelches. Gu Mang peeked over at Mo Xi; he couldn't see Mo Xi's expression in the dark, but the man was radiating an almost physical gloominess.
Gu Mang cleared his throat, turned his clear blue eyes toward the hut's ceiling, and began to hum.
Mo Xi stared at him like he was a madman.
He was looking for a way to distract himself from the uncomfortable noises of the demon beasts next door, which he quickly managed to do. In the past, Gu Mang had played songs for all sorts of occasions on his suona. The melody he hummed now was every bit as brassy as the ones he used to favor, with many twists and turns. While those two bats were immersed in each other on the other side of the wall, Gu Mang was humming a little tune in an impossibly infuriating style.
He'd originally just meant to mask those intrusive sounds—but all these melodies were songs from Chonghua that he'd forgotten when he lost his memories. He'd played some of them at Jiang Yexue's wedding; others he'd played in trenches choked with the smoke of war. Back when he made these notes sing on his suona, there had been many people by his side. Lu Zhanxing hollering; Jiang Yexue smiling. Those army ruffians sprawled out beneath the splendid, spangled sky, raising cups of wine to their lips as they laughed and watched him by the dancing light of the bonfire.
Mo Xi too would be among the crowd, gazing at him with those night-dark eyes that shone so bright.
As Gu Mang hummed, he stopped caring about the noises from next door. He shifted into a more comfortable position, lying back in the pile of straw with his arms pillowed behind his head, bouncing one long leg as he focused on the melody. After a time, he paused. He turned to Mo Xi, who was sitting in the darkness, and asked teasingly, "Do you like it?"
"…You want to bring the neighbors over?" Mo Xi replied darkly.
"I won't." Gu Mang leaned back against the straw, one hand tapping his knee, softly keeping time. "Watch, they can't stop me."
A few minutes later, the sounds on the other side of the wall were replaced by angry pounding.
Mo Xi looked at him reproachfully. His eyes seemed to say, What are you going to do about this?
Gu Mang was in no rush. He tied off his tune with a grace note and let the sound fade. "What's wrong, dear neighbors?" he asked lazily.
"What are you doing in there? Are you screwing or not?!" the male bat demon growled from the other side.
Hearing him say screwing so obscenely, Mo Xi seemed to choke. But Gu Mang was a vulgar person, so he laughed. "Oh, we're screwing all right."
Mo Xi stared in silence.
"Then what are you singing for?!"
"That's just how I am. When I'm enjoying myself, I like to hum a tune."
The rage of the bat demon next door could've burned through both walls. "When you get done good you like to hum 'Moon Reflected in the Pool?!'"6 he snarled.
"Yep; when I come, I even double the tempo."
This response silenced the bat demon along with Mo Xi.
Bouncing a slender leg, Gu Mang toyed with a piece of straw as he continued, unabashed. "It's just a personal quirk. We were here first; if you don't like it, pick a room farther away." He paused, then added roguishly, "The demon I'm with is a great lay. Once I really get into it, who knows, I might find myself singing a jig or two. Brother, are you sure you don't want to move?"
The bat demons next door muttered curses at him. Despite their eagerness, it seemed they couldn't maintain the mood under threat of such a performance. The fire bat tribe was hedonistic and singleminded. In the heat of the moment, the last thing they wanted to deal with was a lunatic who sang double time when he came. After kicking the wall and swearing a few more times, the other couple left to find another
Listening to their shouts of "Lunatic!" and "Freak!" as they hurried away, Gu Mang cackled silently in the pile of straw. As soon as they were gone for good, he couldn't hold back his laughter any longer. His shoulders shook, mirth coursing through him like ripples through water. "Ha ha ha ha—"
"You…" Mo Xi said.
"Arguing or explaining really won't do you any good sometimes." Gu Mang looked at Mo Xi with gleaming blue eyes, misty with suppressed laughter. He grinned. "You've got to either ignore them or prove you're crazier than they are. Works every time. But Xihe-jun, I'm afraid you couldn't learn this trick. You're far too prim and proper."
Mo Xi said nothing.
Several minutes passed, and Gu Mang felt they'd waited long enough. He pushed himself up from the pile of straw and took a step toward the door. Perhaps he'd gotten up too quickly after being sprawled out on his back for so long—he immediately felt lightheaded.
Even while angry with him, Mo Xi's question was reflexive. "What's wrong?"
"I…don't know, I'm a little dizzy." Gu Mang rubbed his forehead. "I'll be all right in a bit." He crossed to the doorway, twitched the bamboo curtain aside with a pinky, and peered out. There were only a few bat demons in sight; most had already paired off and disappeared into the thatched huts flanking the path. The pavilion made of human bones was deserted but for the faint haze of incense smoke glowing softly in the light of the moon.
Gu Mang waved Mo Xi over. "All right, we can sneak out now."
Mo Xi came to stand beside him. The two watched through the crack as the last pair of bat demons ducked into a hut. Gu Mang reached out to lift the curtain.
The instant he touched it, a red bat insignia glowed to life on the surface, so suddenly it burned Gu Mang's fingers. He snatched his hand back. "What the hell?!" he exclaimed.
Mo Xi reached out as well and received a similar scorching. "There's a barrier on the door…" he murmured.
Barrier techniques had never been Gu Mang's strong suit, but they happened to be Mo Xi's. Slender, pale fingers moved over the barrier sigil inch by inch, reading the spiritual energy flow. His brows drew together in a frown. "It's a one-way barrier. Anyone can enter from outside, but to leave from inside…" Mo Xi hummed quizzically, as though he thought he might have read it wrong. He ran his fingers over the edge of the bat sigil a few more times. Whatever suspicions he held seemed to be confirmed; Mo Xi's expression turned ugly as he lowered his hand in silence.
"What is it?" Gu Mang asked.
Mo Xi said nothing. He walked back to the straw heap, sat down, and closed his eyes. "We'll wait until daybreak to leave."
Gu Mang's eyes flew wide in surprise. "Why?"
"Don't ask questions."
In the glow of the barrier's red light, Gu Mang could see Mo Xi wore an expression of embarrassment. Just as Gu Mang was about to say more, another wave of dizziness washed over him. He had no choice but to stand quietly and wait for it to pass before walking over to Mo Xi and sitting down.
Gu Mang was clever. If Mo Xi wasn't willing to explain, he could guess. "This barrier doesn't stop people from entering, but it stops them from leaving. Then its purpose must be to ensure those who enter complete some task before they leave. All the thatched huts must have the same barrier as this one. We can't get out, but those two bat demons from before could."
Mo Xi didn't reply.
As Gu Mang thought it over, his gaze roving back and forth inside the room, it gradually dawned on him. There was nothing here except a pile of soft, thick straw. The bat demons entered to do one thing: dual cultivate and send the spiritual energy they created into their queen's pavilion.
He glanced at Mo Xi's shuttered expression once more. The answer was plain. "I get it—the barrier will check to see if the people inside have had sex or not. It won't let out the ones that haven't, right?"
Mo Xi neither confirmed nor denied. "As soon as the sun comes up, the barrier will lose its effect. We can go at dawn."
But this dawn wouldn't come so easily. Gu Mang tossed and turned, uncomfortable and unable to find sleep. The dizziness from earlier hadn't receded; if anything, it had intensified. He felt as though a fire had sparked to life in his belly, the dry heat spreading like ink on paper, rendering his breaths harsh and labored.
At first, Gu Mang thought he'd overtaxed his weakened body, so he put his discomfort out of his mind. But as it worsened, that strange heat made him prickle all over. Even his fingertips were trembling…
By now Gu Mang couldn't possibly fail to realize what was going on. He sat bolt upright, panting lowly, and yanked open his lapels. He stared at the moon outside the bamboo curtain, his eyes flashing as he recalled what he'd seen in the pavilion.
"Bad news," he said. "There's a problem with that fragrance from the blood pool." He swiped a hand over his face and patted his cheeks, trying to make himself more alert. "Mo Xi?"
Mo Xi was sitting with his back against the straw heap; he hadn't slept. At the sound of Gu Mang's voice, he turned.
"Do you feel weird at all?" Gu Mang asked.
"No. What's the problem?"
Gu Mang swallowed. Those fire bats hadn't gone running into the huts just because of the queen's command—the fragrance released from the blood pool contained an aphrodisiac. But why wasn't it affecting Mo Xi? Was it because he hadn't gone to the pool, and only breathed in a small amount of the scent in the air?
Noting his silence, Mo Xi asked, "Is something the matter?"
"I…" Gu Mang paused. "No."
He lay back down on the straw, his back to Mo Xi, and began silently reciting sutras, trying to suppress the agitation that was growing stronger and stronger. But whatever fragrance the bat queen had poured into the blood pool was extremely potent, the equivalent of casting a spell on all the inhabitants of the pavilion to send them into heat. Unbeknownst to Gu Mang, this perfume only affected demons. Mo Xi was a human; of course he wouldn't feel anything. But Gu Mang was different; his body had been tempered in the Liao Kingdom, fused with the essence of a snow faewolf's soul. Even if the fragrance didn't have as strong an effect on him as on pure demons, it was still frightfully powerful. After reciting a heart-calming sutra seven times over, he couldn't alleviate the dry heat burning through his body. Gu Mang grimaced and curled in on himself as he faced the wall, his breaths slowly quickening…
What the hell.
Demon beasts were different from humans. Under normal conditions, humans could overcome their lust—it was uncomfortable, certainly, to be left without relief in the thick of desire, but it was no more than discomfort. Beasts and demons were not the same. When animals in heat couldn't find relief, their lustful torment was agonizing; even their bones ached with it.
Gu Mang swallowed thickly and closed his eyes.
He didn't want Mo Xi to discover the state he was in, but he couldn't control the effects of the incense, which seemed to take hold of his body as if in retaliation for his abstention. Because he hadn't obeyed the fragrance's commands, every sense that triggered lust was amplified. He could smell that scent he knew too well on Mo Xi's body: his faint, distinctive fragrance, and the masculine musk beneath.
Gu Mang's hands balled into fists in the straw. He bit his lip and slowed his breaths by sheer will, but he couldn't suppress the pounding of his heart. Right now, he truly hated this body the Liao Kingdom had tempered… This body that ran with beastly blood, that forced him to submit to the aphrodisiac and recall those absurd, passionate scenes of the past. Gu Mang's lashes fluttered, hiding the wetness in his eyes…
I can't think about it.
I won't think about it. Shattered images flashed before him, defying all reason. The lust in him longed for Mo Xi's scent to envelop him, yearned for Mo Xi to embrace him from behind as he had in the past, pressing his searing chest to Gu Mang's spine. It demanded that they make love just as wildly as they had back then, that thick root pushing into yielding spring mud, the air filling with the earthy scent of petrichor. The soil was soft and saturated, and when that great cedar dove in, rivulets of spring water burst from its depths, pooling on the forest floor.
Can't think about it.
Won't think about it.
But somehow what sprang to mind was the scalding heat of Mo Xi's breath when he bit Gu Mang's earlobe, his ragged panting in the heat of desire—
"Gu Mang."
A questioning voice, its timbre low and alluring, broke through those torrid memories. Curled up with his back to Mo Xi, Gu Mang shuddered against his will. Try as he might to hide it, Mo Xi still noticed something amiss.
"What's wrong?"
"I…" The instant Gu Mang opened his mouth, his voice was so hoarse even he was taken aback. He swallowed, forcing his voice to steadiness, hoping he sounded a little more distant and a little less shaky. "I'm thinking about some personal matters; it's none of your business."
These words were frosty, and Mo Xi was prideful. As Gu Mang expected, he dropped the issue after being jabbed like that. Gu Mang breathed a soft sigh of relief as he lay facing the wall of the hut, worrying his lip between his teeth. When he opened his eyes, they glimmered with scattered light; he was in such pain they had already filled with tears.
The desire induced by the fragrance was insidious: the harder he tried to suppress it, the stronger it became. Gu Mang's senses screamed. They couldn't endure any more stimulation—he had merely heard Mo Xi's voice and he could feel his body going weak. In the secret recesses of his heart, he found himself thinking how that voice had once murmured his name against the back of his ear while its owner held him from behind, thrusting into him as the sweat between their bodies threatened to fuse them together…
Gradually, Gu Mang's vision blurred. It was too hot; it was genuinely too hot. His heart was beating so rapidly…
He wished the Time Mirror hadn't given him his memories back. Wouldn't he be better off now if he was still the version of himself who knew nothing of passion? Then he wouldn't remember any of these absurdities from the past, nor the thrill and pleasure of sharing Mo Xi's bed.
Gu Mang squeezed his eyes shut. He was on the verge of falling apart. The snow faewolf blood was welcoming the poison inside his body without hesitation, burning away his human rationality piece by piece.
The man he loved, the man he'd slept with, his only beloved, the one he was doomed to part with, the one he wanted but could never have—that man was right behind him, only a few steps away. And they were in a nest beasts used for rutting, filled with the heady scent of sex.
The hand Gu Mang clenched beneath the straw was trembling, his tendons protruding. He was afraid that, in the next second, Wuyan's maddening miasma would destroy him, and he would do something reckless—something regrettable.
After a moment of hesitation, his blue eyes snapped open. He reached down as if he'd made up his mind. With his back to Mo Xi, Gu Mang unfastened his belt and took hold of himself with a shaking hand.
He swallowed the groan that threatened to escape.
Gu Mang's clear blue eyes were wide as he panted in silence. It had been a very long time since he'd done anything like this. He had to avoid Mo Xi's notice, so he moved surreptitiously. His hand stroked clumsily up and down, but it was like giving a parched traveler a single sip of water: wetting his lips begat an even greater heat and thirst.
He couldn't speed up or tighten his grip; he couldn't make any conspicuous sounds. It was like drinking poison to slake his thirst. Slowly, the rims of Gu Mang's eyes grew red from discomfort and frustration; the faewolf blood rushing through his veins was about to drive him mad…
But he couldn't even moan aloud.
Even with his last scrap of rationality, he remembered he shouldn't get involved with Mo Xi. On the day he chose to defect, he had pushed Mo Xi to the side, then dug a chasm seething with hatred between them. He shouldn't have gotten close to him again…
"Mngh!"
A strong hand grabbed him from behind; Gu Mang flinched violently. He heard Mo Xi's voice: "Don't move."
His thoughts were in such disarray, the physical stimulation so devastating, that Gu Mang hadn't noticed anything while so focused on chasing his own release. When those warm, firm, familiar arms caught him by surprise and pulled him into an embrace, Gu Mang's eyes flew open. The shock of it—the overwhelming thrill of it— dragged a moan from him. "Ah…"
He saw sparks. For an instant, his head spun; everything was blurry, yet he instinctively tried to escape. He felt shame, alarm, contrition…by the time Mo Xi's hand wrapped around him, Gu Mang was nearly in tears. There was pleasure, yes, but also a despairing reluctance.
Mo Xi's low voice sounded in his ear, just like in his memories, except this time it held hesitation and resentment. "This is what you meant when you said you were fine?"